Fighting oppression and discrimination for all

Animal Abuse at San Francisco Live Animal Markets

Live turtles and fish at M.P. Seafood Market in San Francisco. The turtles were frantically attempting to right themselves, and a fish's fins were flapping.
Butchering animals
while alive and conscious is a common practice for many live markets,
but turtles are especially prone to such cruelty as
their retractable heads make them difficult to kill. See this video of a still-alive turtle with its shell removed, on display for sale at 99 Ranch Market in Milpitas, CA.

District Attorney George Gascón is claiming that poultry became exempt from
all state animal cruelty laws in 2000.
Our attorneys disagree. Read one attorney's response
here.

Click
here for information about chickens, including the lives of
egg-laying chickens such as these.

Live animal vendors at San Francisco's farmers markets
stuff factory-farmed animals upside-down in paper bags inside plastic bags, overcrowd
animals in direct sunlight with no water, and set aside injured birds for
later sale or eventual dispatch. Customers then transport them (often
on public transit or in their car trunks, after carrying them around
shopping) to their restaurants, apartments or houses and kill them when and
how they wish (usually for food, sometimes for ritual sacrifice, and
possibly for training hunting dogs), unsupervised and unregulated
— these hens and "small game
birds" are exempt from California's
poultry slaughter laws, and birds (along with rabbits)
are exempt from
federal slaughter laws.

We also witnessed them handling the live animals in violent and abusive ways: tossing them (in the bags) onto the ground from high on the truck,
packing them into cages so tightly they crush each other and can't
move or get stuck, forcibly pulling them out of cages from their feet while they
cry out in pain and fear, tying their feet and leaving them on the
ground, and carrying them by their wings or legs. Some animals escape,
possibly to die a prolonged and agonizing death through starvation
or exposure, or becoming the responsibility of overburdened animal
rescue organizations (including Animal Care and Control).

These markets also sell live
"balut," (unhatched bird eggs)
— which are cruelly
boiled alive.

Cruelty to all animals is prohibited by California Penal Code
sections 597(a), 597(b), 597a, and 597t —
yet authorities currently
refuse to fully enforce these laws when it comes to farm animals - even
though no animals are exempt (except to the extent
necessary for slaughter for food, for
hunting and for research). Additionally, California Food and
Agriculture Code section 26602 requires that all persons
transporting poultry carry appropriate written records or they may
be arrested without warrant.

The Humane Society of the U.S. has a good article discussing the
San Francisco live market problems
here.

Most of these chickens are "spent" hens
from egg factories and breeding facilities, purchased by the markets very inexpensively (as
they are not "broiler" breeds worth little for meat). Most
have had their beak ends painfully cut off, standard practice for
intensely-confined egg-laying hens. Such birds' bodies wear out
prematurely — their bones depleted of calcium - after just a couple
of years, due to unnatural egg production levels, stress and overall
poor health. Click
here for more information about commercial egg production and
animal welfare.

Felony arrest warrants issued for
managers of VA live market

In the Fairfax County case, the store managers have been charged under a Virginia law that aims to protect native species by stemming poaching of wild animals for valuable meat, pelts and antlers.
Read more
here.

Live poultry sales cease
at Stockton, CA Farmers' Market!

The Animal Services division of the Stockton
Police Department instructed the Stockton Farmers' Market to
cease live poultry sales effective January 1, 2012, in compliance
with California Penal Code section 597.4. See this
Stockton Record article for more details.

VICTORY! Live bird
sales banned at Richmond, CA Farmers' Market!

On September 27, 2011, the Richmond City
Council voted to end live bird sales at its farmers' market, effective
November 1, 2011. There are no longer any live bird sales allowed at
any Bay Area farmers' market. See this
Contra Costa Times article for more details.

The Councilmember who was most vocally
opposed to the ban posted about it on
his web site. We sincerely appreciate that he acknowledges our findings
that these birds are factory-farmed "spent hens" and that public
health risks and cruelty were valid concerns, and that he links to
our website's information, but we believe he's missing the point on some
issues:

He feels that since California's
Proposition 2 (not effective until 2015) will ban "battery
cages" — one of the many
extremely cruel but standard egg
production practices - this potential small reduction of suffering on
huge corporate factory-farms
will somehow justify the inhumane treatment of these birds in
public at farmers' markets, subsidized by taxpayer money.

He acknowledges that these may be "spent
hens" from factory farms and that opponents have concerns with
the public being exposed to pathogen-ridden feces, but doesn't
state an opinion on the public health risks or the public's
expectation (and the market's requirement) that products sold
there are personally grown by small, local farmers (instead of
simply disposing of "useless" birds unwanted by
factory egg farms).

He claims that there is no evidence that
these chickens were any worse-treated or less-healthy than
grocery store chickens. In fact, "spent hens'" bodies are worn
out and bruised from unnatural egg production levels, making
them unhealthy and susceptible to infections and injury than
young broiler chickens. San Francisco's Animal Care and Control
cited this vendor for 795 cruelty violations in 2009. They also
seized two sick and injured birds in San Francisco — one had to
be euthanized. We have video documentation of others with open
wounds/infections at their tails from severe picking (due to
overcrowding), and one at Richmond with a huge, round, shiny
abscess under her beak. We've documented blood on eggs and in
cages. Much of the cruelty can be viewed at
our YouTube channel. Even if they weren't treated worse, such cruelty should
not subsidized and supported by Bay Area cities.

He feels that any problems such as public
health risks and cruelty are outweighed by the benefits of
people learning that their meat comes from live animals. In
fact, these vendors are tucked away out of sight of most
customers, and the birds carefully hidden by tarps and inside
bags. The only people who are usually aware of them are
customers who have always killed their own animals. Most people
know that their meat comes from animals who have likely been
abused, and they don't have to see the abuse to know it's wrong
— just like we don't need a public display of women being beaten
for people to understand that spousal abuse is wrong.

He (and the other Councilmembers) have
not acknowledged or expressed concern over the violence and
anti-gay/HIV comments this particular vendor has inflicted on
protesters (resulting in a lawsuit against the Heart of the City
Farmers' Market and the vendor, Raymond Young). Both Heart of the City and Richmond farmers' markets
allowed him to continue operations as usual, even after his
daughter and worker
punched one in the face and stole his camera while he was simply
trying to film the conditions in exposed cages.

Finally, he and others claim that the
vendor was selling 700 birds a day, to Richmond residents. In
fact, that number has been reduced to 100-150 a day by our
protests, and many customers are not Richmond Residents. The ban
will actually have little impact on Richmond, and the
inconvenience to a few who prefer live chickens doesn't justify
the problems created by their sales and this violent vendor.

VICTORY! Live bird sales banned at Heart of the City Farmers'
Market — market now plans to expand with new vendors!

On May 1, 2011, Heart of the City Farmers’ Market
announced on
its website that live bird sales will no longer be allowed effective May
27, 2011. This will impact well over 100,000 animals each year. The
market’s manager says Raymond Young Poultry used to sell over 1,000
factory-farmed birds twice weekly, and we estimate
that Bullfeathers Quail bred and sold at least 350 birds each week.

On its Facebook page, the market announced
plans to add more vendors to expand 25% beginning in June, taking
advantage of the space previously used up by the live animal
vendors.

Unfortunately, it took over two years of
investigations, working with market management, working with various
city, country state and federal officials, and peaceful public
protests, leafleting and video display in order to accomplish this
obviously necessary result. The repeated enforcement
attempts by Animal Care and Control, the Department of Public
Health, and the Police Department were a senseless waste of city
resources and taxpayer money, all because government agencies and
market management inexplicably long refused to enforce laws and the
market's permit.

Most shocking was the complete lack of
response or interest by the Board of Supervisors, who control the
market's permit, and have previously passed resolutions
against factory farmed chickens and
promoting vegetarianism. Of particularly concern was
Jane Kim
whose campaign promises included cleaning up the Tenderloin and
making it safer, yet she outright refused to meet with us to discuss
the many problems the live animal sales were creating in her
district, even after a violent attack on one activist.

Our lawsuit against the farmers' market and
Raymond Young Poultry is still in progress.

Our campaign has also stopped live bird
sales near the Alemeny Blvd. market, and at the Old Oakland Farmers'
Market. It now appears that Richmond and Stockton Farmers' Market
are the
only remaining northern California farmers' market allowing live
animal sales, but changes are happening at Richmond as a result of our
investigations there.

We are very grateful to nonprofit organizations United
Poultry Concerns, In Defense of Animals, Bay Area Vegetarians, Farm
Sanctuary, and other organizations and activists who provided
important support to the campaign. We also thank Harvest Home
Animal Sanctuary, San Francisco Animal Care and Control, MickaCoo
Pigeon & Dove Rescue and Palo Alto Animal Services for re-homing
birds rescued from these and other live animal markets.

We thank Heart of the City Farmers' Market for properly reviewing
the issues with live animal sales, and deciding to ban them (as all
other San Francisco markets already do). Please contact Operations
Manager Kate Creps with your thanks, at
(415)
558-9455 or [email protected].

What YOU can do...

Watch for animals being mistreated or abused at live markets and
report them to local Animal Control departments and/or the police.

Switch to a Plant-Based Diet.
Of course, the single most powerful thing you can easily do to help
birds like these is to stop purchasing eggs and poultry! Visit
http://www.chooseveg.com/ or search "Vegetarian Starter Kit" for
more information on transitioning to a healthier and more
compassionate lifestyle. Visit
http://www.bayareaveg.org/finder.htm to find Bay Area
restaurants and other businesses supporting plant-based diets.

San Francisco Animal Care and Control has long had difficulties
with live poultry vendor Raymond Young, who — along with Heart of
the City Farmers' Market manager Christine Adams — remain smug in
their knowledge that San Francisco's District Attorney's office
continues to refuse to
prosecute them for their animal cruelty violations, even after
receiving letters from four attorneys asking them to enforce the
laws.

Please review this
recent correspondence between our attorney Matt Gonzalez and Jeffrey Ross
from the District Attorney's office, followed by Animal Care and
Control records showing that Mr. Young was cited on May 21, 2009 for
795
counts of animal cruelty under California Penal Code § 597(b).
To date, the District Attorney has refused to prosecute Mr. Young
for these violations.

Please contact the District Attorney's office to insist that they
enforce state animal cruelty laws at Heart of the City Farmers'
Market, and prosecute Raymond Young and market management for past
and future citations

The market's own city-issued operational permit's animal welfare
and public health rules are also continuously blatantly violated.
However, Heart of
the City Farmers' Market refuses to enforce the permit, the City
Attorney has blocked an enforcement attempt by County Agricultural
Commissioner Miguel Monroy, and the Board of Supervisors ignores our
requests for enforcement. We have been unable to obtain any
explanation from Virginia Dario Elizondo from the City attorney's
office, who is in charge of U.N. Plaza.

Please contact the following city officials
and request that they enforce the city-issued permit and encourage
the the District Attorney to enforce state animal cruelty laws:

District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim:
(415) 554-7970,
[email protected]. If you
repeatedly get her voicemail or the mailbox is full, please call
the Clerk at (415) 554-5184 and ask for her or one of her aides.

Update January 25, 2011: LGBT Compassion activists sue live poultry vendor Raymond Young and Heart of the City Farmers' Market - but violence continues.

(Updated February 7, 2011.) After a violent December 29, 2010 attack on an LGBT Compassion volunteer by a Raymond Young employee - and theft of his camera by Raymond Young's daughter - activists found it necessary to protect themselves from the escalating violence by filing a suit in The Superior Court of California-San Francisco alleging assault, battery, theft, negligent supervision, and civil rights violations. Civil rights attorney Matt Gonzalez is representing them.

We hope this will soon bring an end to the violence and other illegal and unethical activities involving Heart of the City Farmers' market and its live bird vendors, and make the market safer and cleaner for all its customers.

Shockingly, the market's Board of Directors is allowing Raymond Young and market manager Christine Adams to continue business at U.N. Plaza as usual - including continued violent actions and threats toward LGBT Compassion volunteers. How long will the City of San Francisco allow these reprehensible acts of violence to continue?

Raymond Young (the live chicken vendor) is trucking in birds from three huge factory farms in the Central Valley. These birds appear to be "spent" former egg-laying hens and breeders from egg factories and hatcheries. One is owned by Gemperle Farms, which was fired by a grocery store chain as the supplier of their house brand eggs after undercover investigations of two of their farms revealed extreme cruelty and filth. Learn more about these farms
here, and watch an undercover investigation of Gemperle Farms here.

Also, note that live game bird vendor Jayce and Karye Benton of Bullfeathers Quail owns a huge factory farm north of Sacramento consisting of two enormous enclosed buildings. His commercial operation is so large that the farmers' market represents only about 5% of his sales. Sick birds such as these pheasants we recently videotaped being sold by him at the farmers' market are common with factory-farm practices.

Anti-gay statement by vendor!

Raymond Young's daughter says, "They're gay
anyways... They probably have the HVI [sic]."
The Human Rights Commission is investigating. Watch
the video
here and read the Bay Area Reporter's news story here.

Update August 1, 2010:
The Heart of the City Farmers Market has AGAIN been caught violating the federal Food Stamp Program, after
officials instructed them to cease.

Watch the video here. Also, on August 27, 2010, we confirmed that Raymond Young's Poultry was still accepting food stamps at the Richmond, CA farmers' market. The purchase of live animals with food stamp
benefits is prohibited by the USDA. The USDA can
impose severe potential penalties for Food Stamp fraud, including prison time.
The USDA is currently investigating.

Video of chicken feces left behind by poultry vendor on public property
at farmers market.

View the video from Jun 11, 2010 here. The San Francisco Department of Public Health has cited the vendor and the farmers market for issues such as this, and allowing live animals within 20 feet of food for sale, but violations continue.

View the video from May 23, 2010 here. There is absolutely no question that this is animal torture, and should not be tolerated by the City of San Francisco. Please see below for information on how you can help these animals.

Update May 17, 2010: Live poultry vendor Raymond Young and Heart of the City Farmers market have been documented violating multiple City permit and California Retail Food Code rules and regulations, confirmed by City officials.

Manager Christine Adams refuses to comply,
putting the market at risk of having its permits
revoked. View some details of the City-issued permit violations
here.

Update May 6, 2010: Live poultry vendor Raymond Young's employees physically assault us at the Civic Center and commit perjury to obtain a fraudulent restraining order
request (denied by the judge); market management and police interfere with our free speech rights.

Update September 24, 2009: New Longs Live Poultry shut down by City for zoning law violations.

New Longs Live Poultry has long been operating from Good Hope Baptist Church's
parking lot, which is in a residential zone, where
commercial activities are prohibited. The City has instructed
the church to "cease and desist" its unlawful activities.
Afterward, New Longs attempted to illegally sell from public parking
lots and sidewalks, again demonstrating a blatant disregard for laws
(click here for photos from September 26, 2009).

Photos from U.N. Plaza (Civic Center)

Click here
to view our photos of the live poultry/game bird market, with
vendors Raymond Young and Jayce Benton.

What YOU can do...

Contact the
San Francisco District Attorney's office (email
[email protected],
[email protected] and
[email protected])
and politely ask that
Geoge Gascón pursue prosecution of live animal vendors who violate state laws, and act as accomplices to their customers' violations,
as well as management & property owners who knowingly allow these
violations. To date, the
office has refused to prosecute vendors cited for violations of state animal cruelty laws,
taking an position that the exemption of poultry from one specific
law passed in 2000 caused them to lose prior protection under all
cruelty laws - clearly not the
intent of the law. Click here
for a rebuttal letter from The Animal Law Office.

Contact Miguel Monroy, the
Agricultural Commissioner at
(415) 252-3939 or [email protected]
and ask him to enforce the live poultry sales provisions of the 1993
permit issued to the market's management organization.

Contact
District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim,
(415) 554-7970 or
email her aide April Veneracion at [email protected]
and ask them to enforce the live poultry sales provisions of the 1993
permit issued to the market's management organization. Learn more about Jane Kim's complacency on this issue in this video.

Contact the
Commission of Animal Control and Welfare and politely ask that
they instruct Animal Care and Control and the District Attorney to properly enforce the California Penal Code and the California Food and Agriculture Code,
and work with the Board of Supervisors to introduce anti-cruelty
legislation.

Contact market management/property owners and politely explain that they may be
personally liable for laws violated by their vendors, and ask that they ensure that
their vendors act ethically and abide by the laws, or be banned from the markets:

Report Animal Abuse. If you witness animal abuse at a market,
contact Animal Care and Control at (415) 554-6364 and file a
complaint, and ask for an "Activity Report Number."
Don't allow them to attempt to cite cruelty to chickens under
California Penal Code section 597.3
(as they have been doing in San Francisco), as poultry are exempt
and the charges will simply later be dismissed. Instead, insist that
they apply
other valid sections under 597. If you can, carry a print-out of
the laws with you to show to officers.

Switch to a Plant-Based Diet.
Of course, the single most powerful thing you can easily do to help
birds like these is to stop purchasing eggs and poultry! Visit
http://www.chooseveg.com/ or search "Vegetarian Starter Kit" for
more information on transitioning to a healthier and more
compassionate lifestyle. Visit
http://www.bayareaveg.org/finder.htm to find Bay Area
restaurants and other businesses supporting plant-based diets.

City of Richmond, CA (Fridays)(Civic Center
Plaza Drive and McDonald Avenue, near the public library)

The same vendor from the U.N. Plaza farmers market in San
Francisco (Raymond Young) also violates state animal cruelty laws at
the Richmond, CA farmers market. Please contact the following: